When preparing for honey harvest, there is a natural question for beekeepers: how do I get my bees away from the honey super? When harvesting honey or during a nectar flow: the less bees around, the better. The smell of honey can draw bees toward the frames, so you want to be as fast and efficient as possible. This can include preparing honey harvesting equipment ahead of time, removing as many bees as possible in the days leading up to harvest.
There are several bee removal methods that will clear your honey frames, each having their own merits. What strategy works best for you will depend on a number of factors relating to your own beekeeping goals and your apiary size and setup.
- Shaking – shaking frames to remove bees, shaking them into their hives is an easy method for bee removal. This can cause bees to begin flying all around in a tizzy, however.
- Brushing – using a large brush, you can gently roll the bees off the frames, knocking them into the open hive.
- Fume boards – by using a fume board and spraying Bee Quick or Bee-Go along the edges before placing the board on top of your honey super. The spray you use is a bee repellant and the heat of the sun spreads the repellant through the hive, sending the bees into the brood chamber.
- Bee maze – a bee maze is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a board that will go in between the brood chamber and the honey super. The maze itself allows bees to move down into the brood chamber but they can’t come back up into the honey super.
- Smokers – one can always use their handy dandy smoker, blowing and smoking them off the frames.
There are a variety of ways to clear your honey super of bees, but what matters most is getting them off the frames for procurement.
